ESPN reported earlier this week that sophomore George MacIntyre will start at quarterback for Tennessee this weekend against Alabama.

MacIntyre led the Vols to a come from behind win against Auburn two weeks ago after replacing true freshman Faizon Brandon in the second quarter.

The Tennessee native then made his first career start last Saturday and led the Vols to a win on the road over Arkansas.

Brandon started the first five games of the season for Tennessee, but he’s been sidelined since the Auburn game due to a combination of injury and performance.

Could Faizon Brandon play against Alabama?

Brandon has reportedly practiced more this week than he did the last two weeks, which has led to speculation that he could see some action against Alabama on Saturday.

VolQuest’s Brent Hubbs joined 104.5 The Zone’s Ramon and Will on Friday and he shared the latest on Brandon.

“He certainly did some things on the practice field and with his team on Tuesday and Wednesday,” said Hubbs of Brandon. “They’ll [practice] one more time today (Friday). … They’ll do more today than they did yesterday, and we’ll see from there.

“Josh Heupel’s typically not been a specialty package quarterback guy. He’s kind of had his one guy sort of run with it. But listen, if you don’t think that they haven’t put a lot of time into the quarterback run game in the red zone, then you weren’t paying attention to what Tennessee did in the fourth quarter last week at Arkansas when they lined up with DeSean Bishop with a direct snap, and they lined up with Mike Matthews with a direct snap. That was their answer to the quarterback run with a quarterback that they’re not going to do a lot of running things with in George MacIntyre. So, could they do something with Faizon in that role? I mean, anything is possible at this point. This is an all hands on deck game.”

Vols head coach Josh Heupel obviously isn’t going to reveal his quarterback plan for this game.

But it certainly feels like we’re going to see Brandon in some red zone situations (if he’s healthy enough). And I wouldn’t be surprised to see Brandon throw in one of those situations (that way Alabama can’t just zero in on stopping the quarterback run).

Tennessee and Alabama are set to kick off at 3:30 PM ET on Saturday in Knoxville. The game will air on ABC.